May 03 - Lymington to Worthing

 May 03 - Lymington to Worthing 

A travel day today, heading home to Worthing but with a couple of diversions on the way. 


Our first stop was the small village of Beaulieu.  Meaning 'beautiful place' in French, Beaulieu, a picturesque little honey stone village, sits on a river and mill pond and is in the middle of the New Forest.  Dating back to the 13th century the village, built around an Abbey founded by Cistercian monks, is absolutely delightful and, although more well known for its car museum, certainly deserves a visit on its own. 

A second stop was to catch up with some friends of JEM’s living living in Gosport, a naval town on the south coast.  Being ex-navy, and still having an interest in all things ‘naval’, they took us on a walk along the quay to watch the departure, from the neighbouring port of Portsmouth, of the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth. Wow! This is one seriously big ship!

Also, while at the quay, we saw a ‘wind farm’ propeller being transported by boat from the Isle of Wight to the mainland.  It reminded me of a medieval knight in a jousting competition! 😂

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sept 27 - Perugia (Day trip to Spoleto)

Image
  Sept 27 - Perugia (Day trip Spoleto) Off to Spoleto today, an ancient city in the foothills of the Apennine Ranges.  Divided into the medieval upper town, and the predominantly modern lower town, our initial goal was to head up to the fortress at the top of the hill.  In theory this was going to be relatively easy as the town has installed a number of escalators all the way to the top making it an easy ‘climb’. However, signage to said escalators being non-existent, we found ourselves wandering around town for ages before finding our way up.   The fortress, the ‘Rocca Albornoziana’, was built in the 14th century and was originally part of a fortification system constructed by the church to strengthen its military power.  Today however, it houses the ‘National Museum of the Duchy of Spoleto’, although in more recent times it was used as a prison.  Having some great views of the city and the local countryside it also overlooks the magnificent 13th-centur...
Read more

Sept 28 - Perugia (Day trip to Assisi)

Image
  Sept 28 - Perugia (Day trip to Assisi) Having experienced some pretty steep hills yesterday, today, on arrival in Assisi, we took the easy option and got the bus to the top of town before strolling down! 😊 On a recommendation we first visited a couple of churches in the upper part of town.  Both nice, although nothing spectacular, but considering where we were, i.e. Assisi, I suppose we were both thinking they’d be a little bit special (sorry St Clare! 😊 ) Walking through town though was very nice, really ‘Olde Worlde’, with some great piazzas, cobbled lanes, some Roman remains, and, because it’s in the hills, lovely views of the local countryside.  It’s not often that I’ll mention food on here but today we found a sensational restaurant, overlooking the walls of the city and just metres from the Basilica of Saint Francis, we chose it simply for its location. The food however was superb and, considering its setting, it was no more expensive than most other places w...
Read more